Track & Field News of Saturday, 27 September 2003

Source: Tanko Braimah

Athletics: The Truth of the matter is ...

Fellows I am very disappointed about this whole athletics association which is been championed by the writer. For those of you who don’t know Kwadwo Mensah, I know him but I will withhold his name for now. It is obvious that no one will write such an article full of lies and deceit but him. I will prefer him to be a man and come out and speak to the world with bold face rather than speaking behind the curtain. In his article, he tried to create and continue to create confusion among the athletes and the officials.

The decision to drop Leo was decided in Paris after Leo’s performance in the 4*100 did not meet the expectation of the officials. I have no idea why they would even think to dropping Leo on such a ground. Leo earned his spot on the team b! y running the qualifying mark and earning the #3 spot on the sprinters list as well as running 10.25 in Paris as the writer rightfully confirmed. This brings to mind performance and ranking. Who are the true top sprinters in Ghana in 2003? Let make the same chart this writer made in his article (CHAT & ARTICLE). No I think I will copy his and I will add a name and let the readers insert it at the right spot. TANKO BRAIMAH: 10.31sec on July 12, 2003.

Reference and verification on IAAF site. Waite there is a problem with this time, it does not show wind reading. So the authenticity of it is in question. But do you think the IAAF will put a time on it site without verifying the wind reading? Another performance for TANKO, on May 3rd 2003 i! n Columbus OH at the Jesse Owens invitational, 10.45sec with a wind re ading of 1.9.

So all in all why is it that Tanko’s name or times did not appear on any of this list? Why is it that Andrew who was chosen by the NSC to be in charge of monitoring the performance of the athletes and presenting their names and time for verification by the NSC did not send in Tanko’s performance?? Similar thing happened early this year when Kenneth Andam ran his PR in the 60m in 6.59sec but was not selected.

According to sources Mr. Wilson the secretary did not see Andam’s name and time on the IAAF site even though Leo had faxed the results to the NSC which according to source had Andam’s name and time on the very fax that Leo had sent. So you see it is not a matter of ranking and performance, it is a matter of …………..please add what you think it is.

The writer said, which I quote “To his surprise the athletes threatened to boycott the Games if Leo was dropped from the team” who are the athletes who said they will boycott the games if Leo was drop? Any prove of signed names, and who brought up the idea? Haven spoken to some of the athletes, it is believed that only two or three might have agreed on such a decision. How can only three athletes form a quorum to decide for an association with about 20 athletes?

The mentioning of SS Atuahene was out of question by this writer. It will be remembered that, when SS was drop from the team to Manchester, it was a unanimous decision by the whole association but with very little knowledge that it was being made to eventually favor one person, the writer. Some of us still regret what we did even though SS fraudulent visa activity was undeniable a scar and thus warrant a dismissal from the NSC.

Tanko